Float to the Fleadh, Mullingar 2022
After many months of preparation, Float to the Fleadh finally exploded into life! The normally quiet harbour in the middle of Mullingar became the focus of much attention from the town and Fleadh Cheoil goer’s.
The logistics of holding such a big event on the canal took a lot of coordination and planning. We partnered with Waterways Ireland and Ireland’s Hidden Heartland (IHH) to produce and promote this event and the combined team worked well together. Waterways Ireland pulled out all the stops to ensure that water levels remained high while weedcutting was well under control. Any minor issues were quickly dealt with and all thirty five boats made it safely to Mullingar.
IHH were a wonderful team to have onboard, they assisted with funding which allowed us to expand the breadth of the event while their marketing expertise ensured that the event was extremely well publicised. No less important was our own branch committee who all rallied round. Both Laura and Judith were particularly busy. Laura Magee, branch PRO, is a skilled tourism professional and an organizational dynamo. Without her I can safely say we would not have been introduced to IHH and our event would have been a considerably smaller affair. Judith again came out of catering retirement to roll out two very successful barbeques along with other events throughout the ten days of our stay in Mullingar and helped to build happy memories for everyone involved. Thanks ladies!
Sean Duffy hosted a lovely lunch in Mullingar Sailing Club, Belvedere House provided an excellent excursion for the group, local historian Ruth Illingworth provided two walk/talks and engaged us in local history and Les Saunders gave us an excellent overview and workshop on the C-Sig project.
Daily breakfast briefings gave people an opportunity to get to know one another, it also gave us the opportunity to sell raffle tickets, the proceeds of which went to a local charity.
We could plan for everything bar the weather and here I must apologise to the organisers of the Shannon Harbour Rally. Anyone who was there knows that it poured with rain for almost the whole of that weekend in June. While most wished it would end, I was the one praying for rain. You see the water which fell in June would have ensured that the spring which feeds Lough Owel was healthy and kept the lake topped up all summer. Lough Owel of course is the main feeder to the Royal and contributed a very healthy supply of water to the canal during the summer.
If I had to pick a highlight from the event it would be seeing the number of Shannon boaters who had ventured onto the canal, many for the first time. They learned new skills to cope with canal conditions which will benefit them in the future when they return to the canals.
Mullingar well deserved this event and all it brought to the local economy and it’s Fleadh experience. Having missed out on two years of the Fleadh in 2020-21, it was wonderful to be there in 2022. Having succeeded in securing the Fleadh again in 2023 we will all be back there again!!
Pics: Float to the Fleadh pewter plaque Mullingar harbour as night falls
